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Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Wednesday Women: Randa Florez et al. by Kieran York

Today in the Wednesday Women, Kieran York and her leading ladies, among them Randa Florez from her latest release Astray. My apologies for being late today--tons of snow have messed with my schedule this Wednesday. But here's Kieran's blog now:

WOMAN I’VE WRITTEN

First, my appreciation
to Barbara Wishes for inviting me to participate in Word Affair: Wednesday. It
is a great honor to be among all the amazing writers.

As a Sapphic writer, my
objective is creating believable, sometimes enticing female characters. I want
them to belong to both the reader’s and my world. I want to know their desires,
dreams, character flaws, and achievements. If it works, I can draw out their
intimacies of living. I want them to breath and their hearts to beat.

To demonstrate my
objectives in fictionalizing women, I’ll explain that I love knowing about
people and women in particular. All women are fascinating. So the females in my
literature are developed from real life, from combinations of real life, and
imagination. They are based on my knowledge and experience.

Fictional
characters often locate me without any enticement. They are just there – and
probably have been hiding out with me for most of my life/their lives. They are
characters waiting for their ‘call to plot’ within the queue.

In
Sapphic literature, I’ve selected three of my most popular main characters.
Naturally, artist Danielle O’Hara from Appointment
with a Smile needs to assist me when talking about Appointment. She is nearly always mentioned. A question often asked
is if there are similarities between me and any of my main characters. My
answer is nearly always that Danielle is pretty close match. We have one
another’s vulnerabilities.

Danielle’s
first person story flows through the eyes of an artist. She is nearing sixty
years of age, and her love life is extinct. Her career – likewise. She finds it
is never too late for her love of art, or her romance.

The
Royce Madison Mysteries: TimberCity Masks, CrystalMountain Veils, and ShinneyForest Cloaks, are about an enforcer in
a small Colorado mountain
town. She is courageous, kind, and I’m told many women fall in love with her.
It’s been interesting writing Royce. I see the development as the series moves
along. A fourth mystery is planned to be published later in 2016.

Astray (published
February 2016) is a suspense novel with one of the most fascinating Sapphic
characters that I’ve written. Randa Florez is a newspaper crime reporter. Life
alone requires an enormous amount of self-exploration and research. When
attempting to decipher evil within a malicious soul, it is incomprehensible.

Randa
considered: If I was truly able to locate
the message of others, I must decode myself. It was the human face filling
itself with language that most intrigued me. Just as there are parts of the
vast heavens above that I can’t see from here, there are also parts of my
reflection lost from my vision. So often life was a cavernous, maze-like
chamber.

Randa
seeks to understand evil. Conflicted with her own obstacles, she always felt
torn apart by being split between two worlds: Hispanic and Anglo. With her
parents separating when she was born, Randa became a member of two heritages – she
never completely belonged to either. Randa’s youth was one of being bullied by
both communities. She felt to be abandoned.

Her
character is complex. Although she reflects benignity with each of her
missions/assignments, her personality is also stalwart. She is insightful,
competent, and yet she is unable to trust completely. She never belongs
completely – even to a woman she loves.

As
a writer, I approach my main character with concerns about how the character
impacts the plot. And how does the plot fit the character. In the case of Astray, there is a simultaneous interweaving
of Randa’s exploration and the heart of a killer. Plot allows Randa to peer
into the soul of a deranged, brutal killer. Randa’s search to discover evil
takes her through a dangerous circuitry of horror.

In
my experience, there are many main character requirements. There is her hunger for
purpose. Another component is intensity. For me, character development needs
self-disclosure as well as self-realization.

These
are a few of the ingredients. There are many, many more. I want to have a
glowingly symbiotic relationship, or an electrifying romance with my main
character. I want her to be my leading lady. And if I’ve written her as she
should be written – she will be my leading lady. And the reader’s leading lady.

A
Word to my READERS from my leading ladies: From Danielle, Fleur, Bryana, Kelly,
Olivia, Vicky, Royce, Beryl Trevar, Megan and Randa – thank you! Thank you for
spending time with us. We appreciate you more than you’ll ever know.

A
Word for my fellow Sapphic AUTHORS: I’m proud to be a part of this glorious
wealth of literature that we’re experiencing. We’re all trying to make our art
finer, friskier, and as exceptional as it can possibly be. Our destiny becomes an
attempt to elevate literature. Our hearts are covered over with words – they
are our gifts.

~Kieran
York

Kieran
York is an author/poet with Scarlet Clover Publishers. She is a graduate of FortHaysKansasStateUniversity, and
attended Mexico’s University
of the Americas her junior
year. She is originally from Kansas, and currently
lives with her schnauzer, Clover, in the foothills of Colorado. She enjoys
music, art, literature and her antique typewriter collection and her guitars. Sixteen
of her Sapphic books of prose and poetry have been published. She was a Lambda
Literary Award Finalist; Rainbow Honorable Mention for poetry; and Finalist in
the Poetry category of Golden Crown Literary Awards. Her mysteries have all
been Amazon Hot New Releases and on the Amazon top 100 Best Seller Mysteries. She
has been a reporter and reviewer for newspapers and taught poetry classes. She
wrote and performed songs with a regional woman’s band. She is a member of
Lambda Literary Society and Sisters in Crime.